The [Untouchables] prequel I actually would LOVE to see: Capone Rising

Now, there are few prequels made that actually worked. In fact, I could only think of two that I actually like: Rise of the Planet of the Apes and X-Men: First Class. And The Hobbit is poised to join the scarce number of prequels people anticipated most, but generally speaking, few prequels—or sequels, for that matter—are really that necessary. But I’d like to argue that the prequel to The Untouchables is one I wish would get made real soon!

This Collider interview with Brian De Palma is one that sparked me to write this post, though I have mentioned it three years ago here when the film was supposedly in negotiation and they were still casting who would play Capone. Now before I get to that, here’s an excerpt from that interview:

Collider:The Untouchables was a huge favorite of mine growing up and I was always excited the few times your prequel Capone Rising would move forward before fizzling out. Is there any chance of that happening at this point?

De Palma:I don’t know. We’ve had it cast many times, but we’ve just never been able to get everything together at the same time. It’s owned by Paramount so there’s nothing I can do.

Who did you plan to cast in that?

De Palma: At one point I think I had Nicolas Cage playing Capone. Gerard Butler was going to do the Sean Connery part. I think we even had Benicio Del Toro as Capone at one point. We had so many great people attached. It’s one of those legendarily great scripts that actors would die to play, but we’ve just never been able to get it all together with Paramount.

Ok, you probably think that I’m excited for this because of Gerry Butler‘s involvement, and you’d be half right. I’d LOVE to see him with directors like De Palma, but I also LOVE the original film that garnered Sean Connery his only Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. I think Butler would’ve been perfect as a young Irish-American officer Jimmy Malone. Reportedly the script would explore how Malone wasn’t always the good, incorruptible cop. Now, I found the synopsis from Mafia Wiki (boy there’s apparently a wiki for everything!) on Capone Rising:

It tells the story of Al Capone, his arrival in Chicago and his dealings with cop Jimmy Malone and Capone’s subsequent rise to power. Beginning with Capone’s killing of Edwin Macy in New York, Capone moves to Chicago. Jimmy Malone, recently promoted to detective, befriends Capone. He is not bribed by money, but respects him by arresting his henchmen but not Capone as his 9 year old son is present. Capone returns the favor by letting a witness to a murder, a maid named Halina, live. He changes his mind and has her killed on a train. In revenge, Malone soon begins to rally Irish gangsters, culminating in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Eight months ago, I read reports earlier this year that Tom Hardy was cast to play the iconic gangster Capone for David Yates’ Cicero, and I think Hardy could pull it off better than Nic Cage! According to Screenrant, the project isn’t supposed to start until 2013, so it’d be a dream to see Hardy and Butler in a movie together again since Rocknrolla.

I always love seeing villains who started out as friends first, or at least they saw eye-to-eye before they went separate ways. It’ll be a much different relationship obviously, I don’t think we’ll be seeing these two slow-dancing like this again, ahah.

Interestingly enough, the Mafia Wiki reported that Antoine Fuqua was initially going to direct Capone Rising, instead of De Palma. And now Fuqua is directing Butler in the White House thriller Olympus Has Fallen. I sincerely hope Butler would sign on again as he originally did in 2007 if this movie would ever get off the ground!!

…

Well, what do you think of this prequel folks? Anybody else want to see this movie get made soon?

Yeah I remember reading about this project but I wasn’t as excited to see it as you. Probably because De Palma hasn’t done anything good in a long long time and so I just don’t trust him anymore. The cast sounds good and the apparently “great” script peaked my interest. I assume the project never took off is because A) De Palma hasn’t done anything good for a while and B) This genre is not that profitable at the box office. Heck even David Fincher couldn’t even get the spin off version of The Untouchables off the ground.

Well just because he hasn’t done anything good in a while doesn’t mean he’d automatically butcher this prequel, after all the original was great. Interesting that the gangster movie is not profitable considering how much people love movies like The Godfather.

Oh no I’m not saying that De Palma can’t make good movies again, it’s just his track record the last few years have been pretty brutal. I think I blame Mission: Impossible for his down fall, he hasn’t done a descent picture since that movie. De Palma used to be one of my favorite directors, I think he’s lost his mojo like Coppola.

Well the Godfather films were a long time ago and as you know in today’s movie market, if it’s not reboot, prequel/sequel or comic book based, filmmakers are having a hard time getting their projects off the ground. I think the last successful period gangster film was The Untouchables. Too bad Gangster Squad has to be delayed because of the shooting in Colorado; I like to see how that film will perform at the box office.

“Lost his mojo… like Coppola”… exactly what I was thinking Ted. The thing about De Palma is a lot of his early success was due to seriously aping his idol Hitchcock. Obsession, Sisters, Dressed To Kill, Body Double, etc. I was looking at his filmography and the only great non-Hitchcockian work he’s done IMHO is Carrie, Scarface and The Untouchables and the writers on those were Stephen King, Oliver Stone and David Mamet respectively. Mission: Impossible is the only decent thing in there since ’87. BTW I didn’t care for Carlito’s Way. Sean Penn’s hair… the horror. LOL.

Ted I think the gangster movie is still profitable. Starting with Heat in ’95 to Guy Richie’s movies to mob comedies like Get Shorty, My Cousin Vinny, and Analyze This to all the way to The Departed, Public Enemies and TV’s The Sporano’s.. With the high profile Gangster Squad coming up I think gangster films are still alive, well and making money even if in smaller supply today.

I will say this, the newer (’50’s-’80’s) period films like Goodfellas, Casino, Donnie Brasco ($124 mil) and American Gangster ($265 mil) and have done very well. About the only older (’40’s and earlier) period films l can come up with since ’87 that were hits were Road To Perdition ($181 mil), Public Enemies ($214 mil) and TV’s Boardwalk Empire. So you’re pretty much on the mark there Ted if you were talking about the earlier period gangster films.

I don’t know Ruth I guess it’s Paramount’s money so hey, give it a shot on The Untouchables prequel. I just think it might be better served by a different director at this point. Unfortunately De Palma goes back to his Hitchcockian roots with little critical success in his latest film Passion with Rapace and McAdams? The reviews have described it as a “campy, heavy-handed, unintentionally hilarious romp that’s miscast with a bombastic score.” Yikes!

Yeah, De Palma has really gone down hill the last few years or so. You didn’t like Carlito’s Way huh? I love that movie, yes I agree that Sean Penn’s hair was ridiculous but I thought the film was pretty great.

I guess I may have to take back that comment about the genre not being that profitable, totally forgot about Road to Perdition and Public Enemies; those two films were modest hits.

Passion just look so cheesy and silly to me, it looks like a high budget Skinemax soft porn to me. LOL.

NOT interested in Passion either, but that kind of subject matter rarely piques my interest. I’m quite surprised of McAdams’ involvement but I suppose she might try to shed her reputation of being the sweet girlfriend type.

Yeah I gotta grudgingly admit I saw some of Two Moon Junction just for Sherilynn Fenn. Big Twin Peaks fan back in the day. I thought she looked uniquely stunning kind of like a 40’s hollywood starlet. Here’s a video link from last year from a Twin Peaks panel. Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) tells a great story about Lara Flynn Boyle. Watch Sherilynn’s reaction. LOL. She’s blonde now. It’s a little shaky and hard to hear but worth it.

I do like The Untouchables, although a lot of that is because it’s one of the first mob movies I ever saw. And… let’s face it, I love mob movies of any stripe. I just struggle with DePalma and I do a bad job of hiding it.

The guy who played Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies (Stephen Graham) plays Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire. He’s only one character among many classic mob history names, but he’s a great character on the show.

Boardwalk also has Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Arnold Rothstein, Johnny Torrio, and Benjamin Siegel for the mob history fans.

I would love to see a movie about the Rise of Capone (and I too have also always loved The Untouchables) but……no disrespect to Gerard Butler, none at all, because it’s not HIM, it’s the ROLE. I just don’t think I would want anyone trying to slip into the shoes of Jimmy Malone. That’s Connery and Connery alone. I personally think it should stay that way.

I hear ya Nick, it is such an iconic performance. But at the same time, it’s a younger version of him, so no matter what I don’t think Connery himself could ever step into that role again if they’re going to tell the early story of Malone + Capone.

You know Ruth I was thinking back to what made The Untouchables great. Besides the pitch perfect casting of Costner, De Niro and Connery the supporting roles were brilliantly cast. Italian hothead and crack shot Andy Garcia in his breakout role, earnest FBI accountant Charles Martin Smith, the loving wife Patricia Clarkson, perennial creep and bad guy Billy Drago and even the seedy accountant Brad Sullivan aka ‘Mo’ from Slapshot. De Palma was in top form shooting a Mamet script with Morricone’s score on top of that. That makes for some pretty lofty filmmaking. That’s a lot to live up to for the prequel.

Actually Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Ocean’s Thirteen, Rounders and produced The Illusionist) wrote the script which was revised by playwright David Rabe (Casualties of War [De Palma], The Firm). Here’s a ‘candid’ (read harsh) interview from May of 2010 from them. Not a lot of love for De Palma, even from them. It seems to be going around.

Wow, I didn’t realize how much people dislike De Palma, I guess I haven’t seen his latest movies in a while. Black Dahlia was ok but a far cry from the excellent L.A. Confidential. Maybe I’m too hopeful about him, ahah.

This could be an interesting movie but not with De Palma who seems to have lost it since The Untouchables. I do like antagonists who have or had a close relationship with the film’s protagonist but I just have a hard time seeing Gerard Butler in anything right now, I guess it’s been a really long time since he did anything decent 😦

Well, of course, Tom Hardy and Gerard Butler. With De Palma, I don’t know. But throw in Fuqua — as in, director of one of my all-time fave Chow Yun Fat movies THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS — and it then becomes, How do we get this made? 😉

Yeah I think Fuqua would do well, who knows now that Gerry is doing a movie with him they might revisit this project? Oh I haven’t see Replacement Killers! I have to give that a chance, somehow the critics trashed it though, but heh, what do they know! 😀

Well GB apparently had signed on w/ De Palma before but Hardy is just wishful thinking on my part since he’s gonna play Capone in another movie. I do hope this would get made… and they did the original justice indeed!

About me

Hello I'm Ruth! Film is in my blood. LOVE movies of all genres, from Jane Austen to James Bond. Official blogger for the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF). I've recently completed my first feature screenplay & produced my first short film HEARTS WANT. Visit facebook.com/heartswantfilm

Trivia on Blade Runner 2049

Denis Villeneuve noted that he's fully aware of the immense pressure he's under, and how hardcore fans of the original view the prospect of a new film: "I know that every single fan will walk into the theater with a baseball bat. I'm aware of that and I respect that, and it's okay with me because it's art. Art is risk, and I have to take risks. It's gonna be the biggest risk of my life but I'm okay with that. For me it's very exciting... It's just so inspiring, I'm so inspired. I've been dreaming to do sci-fi since I was 10 years old, and I said 'no' to a lot of sequels. I couldn't say 'no' to Blade Runner 2049 (2017). I love it too much, so I said, 'Alright, I will do it and give everything I have to make it great.'"

Initially, Denis Villeneuve was against the concept of a sequel to Blade Runner (1982), as he felt it could violate the original. But after reading the script, which he and Harrison Ford have described as "one of the best" they have ever read, he committed to the project, stating that Ford was already involved at that point: "To be very honest with you, Harrison was part of the project before I arrived. He was attached to it right from the start with Ridley [Scott]. I met him and he's honestly one of the nicest human beings I've met and is one of my favorite actors of all time, so for me it's a lot of pleasure."

Jared Leto was introduced to Denis Villeneuve by his close friend Jean-Marc Vallée, who had directed Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

Emily Blunt was considered for a role but she declined due to her pregnancy.

This sequel is set to be released on October 6, 2017, just ten years and one day after the Final Cut version of the first film premiered in Los Angeles.

The sequel which takes place 30 years after Blade Runner (1982) is the story of new Blade Runner Officer K (Ryan Gosling) as he searches Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) whom has disappeared. In Harrison Ford's earlier science fiction film Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) which took place 30 years after Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), The film's main protagonists Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) are searching for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) whom disappeared. Harrison Ford played Han Solo in the Star Wars films.